Baldur’s Gate 3 players discuss why Astarion and Lae’zel got such different receptions
Larian StudiosFan treatment of Baldur’s Gate 3 companion Lae’zel has sparked a conversation on the double standard female characters face that has Dragon Age creator David Gaider weighing in.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a deep storyline and fleshed-out characters that players will meet along their journey across the Sword Coast and beyond.
One of the game’s playable characters is Lae’zel. Players who don’t select her as their Origin character will meet her in the first area. The Githyanki fighter is quite abrasive and violently inclined, generally approving of evil choices and scoffing at acts of sympathy and mercy.
Lae’zel’s personality has put off many fans, but she isn’t the only companion to act this way. Now, fan treatment of her is sparking a conversation on how female characters are treated by fandoms, a topic that has Dragon Age co-creator David Gaider weighing in.
Dragon Age creator says fans would treat Lae’zel differently if she were male
The conversation was started in response to a tweet by PleasantKenobi. The streamer said that, while Lae’zel gets quite a bit of development over the course of the game, her behavior was too frustrating to be worth the time it takes to get there.
Reactions to the tweet have been mixed. While many agree that Lae’zel can be coldhearted and mean to the players, she’s no different from most other Baldur’s Gate 3’s companions. For example, Astarion is just as cruel as Lae’zel. However, he’s pretty consistently been lifted up as a fan favorite.
As some have pointed out, the main difference between them is that Astarion is a conventionally attractive male character, while Lae’zel is neither of those things.
This discussion over Lae’zel and how Baldur’s Gate 3 fans view her, especially in comparison with Astarion, got the attention of David Gaider. The creator of the Dragon Age franchise and its world of Thedas pointed out that the same scenario happened among fans of that series.
While Gaider doesn’t cite any Dragon Age characters as examples, many fans compared Lae’zel to Dragon Age: Origins companion Morrigan. For Gaider, though, the specifics of who the characters are and how the game frames them are irrelevant.
In both Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate 3, players were far more lenient and willing to give male characters second chances, while female characters who were not immediately appealing were permanently marked as bad or unreasonable.
The conversation surrounding Lae’zel, and female characters at large, is an important one, though not one with a satisfying resolution.
Fortunately, not all online debates regarding Baldur’s Gate 3 are so contentious, as fans are also discussing which D&D setting Larian Studios should tackle next.